Kidspot Kitchen

Beautiful beef cuts

By Jennifer Cheung |

Beef is the most widely used meat in New Zealand and that is due to the great quality and quantity of meat available. It is high in protein, vitamin B12 and zinc. There are many ways to cook beef but primarily you need to make sure that you have the right cut so your meal is a success.

Some cheaper cuts are perfect for braising, slow cooking and casseroles while other higher quality cuts just require a very quick pan-fry to give a beautiful result. The cuts that have sinew and fat on them contain the most flavour as this dissolves during cooking and imparts the extra flavour to the meat.

Shin

Shin beef is taken from the front lower leg of the animal. It is full of connective tissue which is very tough so it requires braising or slow cooking to tenderise the meat. It is most suitable for soups and stews. It is a very flavourful cut and worth the time it takes to cook.

Rump

Rump steak has a nice thick layer of fat down the side of this cut and I often gauge the quality of a rump steak by looking at the colour of this fat. If it is a creamy yellow, I think the steak is always tastier.

Tenderloin

This cut is a super tender cut as this muscle does little work. It is perfect for roasts or steaks. It is traditionally used in Chateaubriand, Beef Wellington and is perfect to use for carpaccio (very thin raw steak slices that are marinated)

Skirt

Skirt steak is a long flat piece of meat that is great to use in quick cooking such as stir-frys or any recipe that requires the meat to be pan-seared very quickly. You can dice, roll, slice or season skirt steak before cooking.

Cube roll

The cube roll is in the centre of the beast and they say the further from the horns or tail the meat is, the more tender it is.
The cube roll cuts are rib eye/scotch fillet steak, rib eye/ Scotch fillet roast, standing rib roast and rib cutlets.

Blade/chuck

This is a great cut to use for roasting, braising, stewing and slow cooking. It has a few lines of connective tissue running through it which intensifies the flavour when slowly cooked by melting and flavouring the meat.